Effective network communications is becoming increasingly important in today's society. One aspect of network communications relates to the ability to identify an end user associated with a communication flow. Devices, components, and equipment within a network may wish to glean information from the communication flow in order to provide some capability or enhancement within the network or to provision services for an end user based on his identity or his particular situation.
In attempting to identify an end user associated with a communication flow, network designers generally insert a piece of network equipment somewhere in a communications link such that the communication flow passes through the inserted piece of network equipment. This network configuration suffers from a number of drawbacks. For example, pieces of network equipment that are inserted into the communication pathway may slow overall network communications because the communication flow needs to be received and then retransmitted at each piece of equipment in the communication flow. In addition, some of the inserted network devices may wish to process the information within the communication flow before communicating the data to a next destination. Additionally, the processing of the information may affect the communications format and/or present compatibility or encryption/decryption problems for devices and equipment positioned downstream of the processing devices. Accordingly, the ability to properly identify an end user in a network environment, without inhibiting system performance, presents a significant challenge to service providers, network operators, and component manufacturers.